And my comment points out that it was the wrong decision to allow them here.
The idea that the “only” thing it can achieve is to drive hostility to those who have arrived is an untested assertion. For example, how about the majority of French people who are horrified at Israel’s policies? They are given voice by this statement.
I would argue that allowing Israel to compete as though nothing is wrong is more dangerous, because ten times as many people are murdered in Palestine per week than there are Israeli athletes in Paris, none of whom are likely to die even if this statement whips the entire country into a murderous rage.
It’s just a general assertion that if you let a person in your country, you treat them as anyone else.
Besides, those athletes have done nothing wrong except being born in a country whose leadership decided to go full bloody. They need those performances for their professional career, and that’s why they went there anyway.
Being horrified by the war doesn’t mean being hostile to the Olympic team. I, for one, am full pro-Palestine in a war, but fail to see why we should transform it into hostility towards Israeli athletes. Same with many people in France, I assume.
It is debatable whether Israel should have been allowed; on one side, not letting them in would be a political sign, on the other, it could radicalize people and cut the ties that were in place to promote peace of all things.
But athletes themselves did nothing wrong unless personally endorsing the genocide, and shouldn’t be treated like unwelcome invaders.
And there’s no point comparing it to the death toll of Palestinians; two wrongs don’t make a right. Sure, conflict in Gaza is a much more urgent and serious problem, but that doesn’t mean hostility against Israeli athletes should be ignored.
Doesn’t really make a difference in what I say.
To me, a war can be genocidal, and this one is. And peace times can have apartheid, which has also taken place.
